People Australia

Frank McManus, Herald &​ Weekly Times, 1970

National Library of Australia, 42937052

Francis Patrick Vincent (Frank) McManus (1905-1983) teacher and Australian Senator

Birth: 27 February 1905 at North Melbourne, Victoria, son of Patrick McManus (1864-1957), a carrier born at Derrylahan, Roscommon, Ireland, and Melbourne-born Gertrude Mary, née Beale (1876-1940) [known as Dorothy Alice Marsden]. Marriage: 9 January 1937 at St Margaret Mary’s Catholic Church, North Brunswick, to Melbourne-born Clare Mulvany (1911-2009). They had two daughters and two sons. Death: 28 December 1983 at Kew, Melbourne; usual residence Edward Street, Essendon. Religion: Catholic. 

• Educated at St Kevin’s Christian Brothers’ College, West Melbourne, and at Newman College, University of Melbourne (BA (hons) 1926 and Dip. Ed. 1927).
• Worked as a teacher in high and technical Schools with the Victorian Department of Education until 1949.
• Became a member of the Australian Labor Party in 1925. Was president of the Flemington and Bairnsdale branches; junior vice-president of the ALP in 1948; senior vice-president of the ALP in 1949.
• McManus was a broadcaster of Labor’s view on the news on Radio 3KZ from 1950 at least. He was delegate to the Australian Council of Trade Unions biennial congresses in 1947 and 1949.
• Assistant secretary of the Labor Teachers’ Union in 1950 at least, he was secretary of the Labor education committee from 1950 at least, government representative on the Victorian Board of Adult Education in 1947-1949; assistant secretary of the Victorian branch of the ALP in 1950-1956.
• McManus was a central figure in the 1955 split in the labour movement, allying with the Groupers. He was elected to the Australian Senate in December 1955, taking his seat in 1956.
• He was deputy leader of the Australian Democratic Labor Party (formerly ALP Anti-Communist) in the Senate from 1956 to 1962, when he lost his seat. He was federal organising secretary of the DLP from 1963 to 1965, and contested fthe ederal seat of Maribyrnong in 1963.
• After he was re-elected to the Senate in December 1964, he was again deputy-leader from 1965-1973 and parliamentary leader of the DLP from 1973 until May 1974, when the DLP lost its parliamentary positions.
• In 1977 he published his memoir, The Tumult and The Shouting. He was appointed CMG for services to parliament on 31 December 1979.
• Died after a long illness. Cause of death: carcinoma of stomach (10 months) and diabetes mellitus (12 years). 

Sources
Joan Rydon (ed), A biographical register of the Commonwealth Parliament 1901-1972 (ANU Press, 1975); Labor Call (Melbourne), 20 April 1950, p 6; Recorder, No. 126, February 1984, pp 9-10; John Warhurst, Francis Patrick Vincent McManus, in Biographical Dictionary of the Australian Senate: https://biography.senate.gov.au/mcmanus-francis_patrick-vincent/ .